Individuals, small businesses and major corporations the (“Shipper(s)”) ship billions of parcels every year (small office/home office shippers are referred to as “SOHO” Shippers). Each parcel, also sometimes referred to herein as a package, is shipped by a Shipper using at least one parcel carrier (the “carrier(s)”, or “Carrier(s)”).
Each parcel is characterized by a set of “Parcel Specifications.” Parcel specifications include but are not limited to such factors as: parcel dimensions, parcel weight, parcel value, parcel value and the like.
Each Shipper is faced with certain shipping requirements and limitations (“Shipping Requirements”), such as the location from which the parcel is to be shipped, time frame within which the particular parcel must arrive at its destination, the ability of the shipper to drop off the parcel, budgetary constraints with regard to the cost of shipping, insurance against loss, delivery notification, loss protection, and the like.
Each Carrier has its own unique rating schedule, and delivery and pickup rules and schedules for each of a multitude of different services. In some cases, a particular Carrier's rules may be available in a standalone Carrier-provided paper-based or computer system. Many Shippers attempt to work with each of the standalone, individual paper-based and computer Carrier-provided systems (“standalone Carrier system environment”) in order to ship a parcel.
A Shipper that uses standalone Carrier systems must sort through the various services offered by each carrier and apply each Carrier's rules to determine whether one or more carriers offer a service with which to deliver a particular parcel according to the Shipper's requirements. If the Shipper determines that more than one carrier offers a service with which to deliver a particular parcel according to the Shipper's requirements, then the particular Shipper might additionally be concerned with selecting a carrier and service that provide shipping services at the optimal price.
One of the problems in dealing with standalone Carrier systems is that, if the Shipper wants a particular parcel to be delivered to a particular destination under certain budgetary preferences and according to certain delivery schedule preferences, the Shipper must attempt to apply each Carrier's pricing and delivery schedule rules for each service offered by the Carrier to the particular parcel to be shipped. Each Carrier's pricing and delivery schedule rules for delivering parcels must be separately applied by the Shipper to shipment of a particular parcel to determine shipping rates and delivery schedules for each service offered by each Carrier. Accordingly, some way is needed so that a Shipper can accurately and easily identify the rates and delivery schedules for each service offered by each Carrier for shipping a particular parcel.
Another one of the problems with any system that communicates with client computers over the Internet is response time. Once a system generates a display, if a user of an interactive online system modifies data on which the display was based, then in some cases, the system receives the data, regenerates the display, and then retransmits the display to the user's display monitor. Higher speed modems, DSL, and other communications improvements continue to improve the speed at which data is transmitted through the Internet. However, response time continues to be a problem. An alternative way is needed reduce response time with which a display is regenerated in response to a user modifying data on which the display is based.